Description
Book SynopsisA major feminist philosopher engages the work of the actor and director who has progressed from being the stereotypical man's man to pushing the boundaries of the very genres - the Western, the police thriller, the war or boxing movie - most associated with American masculinity.
Trade Review"Drucilla Cornell is our leading ethical feminist philosopher who lays bare the moral core of our leading masculinist film director -- the genius named Clint Eastwood. To put it bluntly, this book is the best treatment we have of Eastwood's magisterial filmic corpus!" -- -Cornel West Princeton University "This is an ambitious, innovative project that seeks to bring together popular culture studies with political philosophy. Throughout there are many sparkling insights and provocative discussions that ramify far beyond Eastwood's work and invite a broader discussion of the ways in which gender might be thought in relation to democracy theory, law, and ethicality." -- -Sara Murphy New York University "An exciting read, in which Eastwood's work and his personal struggle come alive for us together with a rich layer of conceptual analysis that is equally vivid." -- -Jessica Benjamin author of Like Subjects, Love Objects: Essays on Recognition and Sexual Difference "Cornell's use of philosophy, literature, and cinematic theory makes this an intriguing (yet surprisingly accessible) work. Her weaving of plot summarization and critical analysis is elegant and seamless. Highly recommended." -Choice "Drucilla Cornell's powers of cultural analysis and critique are in rare form in this lucidly written and extraordinarily rich philosophical portrait of one of Hollywood's most brilliant and often controversial icon of masculinity. The work inspires reflection not only on the meaning of masculinity in the world of cinematic fantasy, a world with a troubled history of female and racial subordination premised both on its presence in American society and its cultivation and fomentation as imagined by directorial license, but also on struggles for humanistic portraits of human possibility in a clearly less than ideal world. It's a triumph in new critical theory and philosophical analysis of contemporary culture. Bravo!" -- -Lewis Ricardo Gordon Temple University "No doubt many fans of Eastwood's directorial work will find additional reasons to examine his methods thanks to Cornell's thoughtful, thorough analysis." -Feminist Review "An extremely important work, not mainly as a book of film criticism or cinematographic biography, but as a work of social commentary and ethical philosophy." -- -Karin van Marle University of Pretoria
